2011 in rail transport

Events

By month

January events

• January 10 – Regular through passenger service from Wuhan to Wanzhou over the complete new Yiwan Railway in China starts. The line features of bridges on a total length of.

  February events

• February 19 – First public passenger train operates throughout between Caernarfon and Porthmadog Harbour over the restored Welsh Highland Railway.
• February 28 – Wabtec announces that it has acquired Brush Traction, the English-based locomotive builder and maintainer, for US$31 million.

  March events

• March 13 – Kyushu Shinkansen opens between Hakata of Fukuoka and Shin-Yatsushiro, with Osaka and Kagoshima direct bullet train starting.

  April events

• March–April – Eurasian Land Bridge test run from Chongqing to Duisburg via Alashankou crossing, Kazakhstan, Russia, Belarus, and Poland, covering in 16 days.

  May events

• May 1 – Veendam railway station opens in the Netherlands.
• May 1 – Tide Light Rail begins service in Norfolk, Virginia.

  June events

• June 6 – Munich–Augsburg railway is upgraded to four-track.
• June 16 – An NSB Class 73 burns up after catching fire in a burning show shed at Hallingskeid Station on Norway's Bergen Line.
• June 20 – A-Train commuter rail service begins in northern Texas.
• June 22 - Shenzhen Metro's Line 5 opens.
• June 28 - Phase 2 of Shenzhen Metro Line 2 connecting Window of the World Station to Xinxiu Station opens for trial runs.
• June 30 – Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway opens in China.

  July events

• July 23 – Wenzhou train collision: At least 39 people are killed when a China Railway High-speed train collides in rear with a preceding stationary train halted by a lightning strike, throwing two coaches off a viaduct close to Wenzhou in Zhejiang province.

  August events

• August 7 – West Valley and Mid-Jordan extensions of TRAX open in the Salt Lake City, Utah, area.
• August 15 – The Gevingåsen Tunnel on Norway's Nordland Line opens.
• August 19 – The first line of the Jerusalem Light Rail opens to passengers. It runs from Pisgat Ze'ev in the northeast, south along Road 60 to Jaffa Road. From there, it runs along Jaffa Road westward to the Jerusalem Central Bus Station, and continues to the southwest, crossing the Chords Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava, along Herzl Boulevard to Beit HaKerem and terminates near Mount Herzl.
• August 26 – The Bærum Tunnel and section of track between Lysaker and Sandvika on Norway's Asker Line is taken into use.
• August 31 – Opening of Docklands Light Railway extension from Canning Town to the new Stratford International station, taking over the North London Line infrastructure and linking the Docklands area with domestic and international high-speed services on High Speed 1 and with the 2012 Olympic Games site.

  September events

• September 27 – Brookhaven Rail Terminal opened on Long Island, New York, a 28-acre facility for bulk commodities

  October events

• October 8 – The Circle MRT Line becomes fully operational.
• - Banihal-Qazigund railway tunnel a part of its Udhampur – Srinagar – Baramulla rail link project, opened in October 2011, India's longest and Asia's second longest railway tunnel and reduced the distance between Quazigund and Banihal to only 11 km. The 10.96 km long railway tunnel, passes through the Pir Panjal Range of middle Himalayas in Jammu and Kashmir.

  November events

• November 7 – A new segment of the Vestfold Line with double track between Barkåker and Tønsberg, including the Jarlsberg Tunnel, is taken into use.
• November 8 - The new 5000-Series rail cars, built by Bombardier Transportation of Plattsburgh, New York are placed in revenue service on the Chicago Transit Authority elevated-subway rail system. These new rail cars represent the next generation of high-tech transport on the Chicago 'L'-Subway. They feature smooth stainless steel car bodies with fluted sidewalls, sculptured face ends, color-coded digital LED destination signs, ADA accessibility with longitudinal seating arrangements and two wheelchair locations. The 5000-Series cars are also equipped with AC traction motors.

  December events

• December 11 – SNCF opens LGV Rhin-Rhône.
• December 11 – Sassenheim railway station opens in the Netherlands.
• December 28 – Hangzhou Metro opens in China.

  Unknown date events

• – The aging Hitachi trains in Melbourne are completely phased out.
• – China high-speed Rail faces with crisis after train crash. Several executions happen in governments, train speeds are reduced from 350 km/h to 300 km/h and from 250 km/h to 200 km/h. Expansion of high-speed corridors became uncertain, but will see the second boom in next few years.
• – JR East phases out 113 series.

  Industry awards

Japan

• 2011 Blue Ribbon Award: Keisei Electric Railway AE series Skyliner EMU
• 2011 Laurel Prize: Tokyo Metro 16000 series EMU

  North America

• 2011 Railroader of the Year: Wick Moorman
• 2011 Regional Railroad of the Year:
• 2011 Short Line Railroad of the Year:

  United Kingdom

• 2011: South West Trains

  Deaths

• 15 January – Francesco di Majo, designer of the Pendolino.
• 4 May – Richard Steinheimer, American railroad photographer, dies.
• 10 July – William D. Middleton, well-known American rail-transport writer.
• 29 July – Richard Marsh, Baron Marsh, chairman of British Rail 1971–1976, dies.
• 20 October – Roger Tallon, designer of the TGV.